David Walker sounds alarm at U.S. government debts

Birmingham native and national economics commentator David Walker said today his outlook for the country's finances is little changed from a year ago.

Birmingham native David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general and head of the GAO, says "no one is going to bail out" a bankrupt U.S. Walker, former head of the Government Accountability Office, told the Downtown Rotary Club that health-care costs and off-balance sheet liabilities associated with Social Security and education threaten to push the United States into third-rate status among the commonwealth of nations.

"Washington is out of touch and out of control," Walker said. "And nobody is going to bail out America."

Walker, president of the New York-based Peter G. Peterson Foundation economic advocacy group, said government must do less and taxes must rise at least in the short-term, or the nation's debts "threaten to bankrupt the country." Read a bio of Walker.